J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Tour to the Alps 1836 > Separate Sheets Associated with the 1836 ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Fort of L'Esseillon, Val de la Maurienne 1836

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Fort of L'Esseillon, Val de la Maurienne’ 1836
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
The Fort of L’Esseillon, Val de la Maurienne 1836
D36176
Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 318
Watercolour on paper, 194 x 280 mm
Stamped in black ‘CCCLXIV–318’ bottom right
Inscribed in blue ink ‘1595’ bottom right
Blind stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This study relates to Turner’s 1836 tour of the Alps, which he made in the company of the wealthy Scottish landowner H.A.J. Munro of Novar; for more information, see the Introduction to this section.
The Turner scholar David Hill identified this colour study as a view of the Fort of L’Esseillon in France’s Val de la Maurienne, which Turner traversed on his way home from his Alpine tour, after parting company with Munro at Turin.1 The large fort, surrounded by dramatic mountain scenery, was the subject of two further watercolour studies; these are now in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.2 Another sheet in the Turner Bequest may show a nearby view (Tate D36223; Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 361).
This study is worked up to a relatively high degree of finish, with layers of watercolour used to capture the dramatic rocky landscape and distant peaks.
1
Hill 2000, pp.292–3.
2
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, London 1979, pp.471–472 no.1431, as ‘Swiss mountains’, ?1836, 474 no.1450, as ‘Sisteron, Basses Alpes’, ?1836.
Technical notes:
The blue layer of colour in the centre foreground may be gouache.
Verso:
Blank, save for inscriptions: inscribed in pencil ‘37’ near centre and ‘CCCLXIV 318’ bottom centre.

Elizabeth Jacklin
August 2019

How to cite

Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘The Fort of L’Esseillon, Val de la Maurienne 1836 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2019, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-fort-of-lesseillon-val-de-la-maurienne-r1204632, accessed 24 June 2025.